Futures

S&P futures vs fair value: +10.02 at 980.77. S&P 500 is off to a very solid start. Buyers redoubled their efforts pushing S&P 500 to its 6-month highs. The heavy activity started before the jobless claims data was released at 8.30am. Although the numbers came slightly better than expected, there were early layoffs in the manufacturing sector for the summer. The consensus was expecting 585,000; actual came to 584,000.

Meanwhile, European bourses are all up with solid gains. DAX is at 5297.51, up 27.19, FTSE 100 4601.25, up 53.72, and CAC 40 is at 3406.55, up 40.93.

Asian markets, on the other hand are trading with mixed a fashion. NIKKEI 225 is finally in the positive territory after spending almost the whole day in red. it is now at 10165.21, up 51.97.
China's HANG SENG had the similar movement today. It is now trading with some moderate gains at 20234.08, up 98.58.

Now the eyes are turned to the natural gas report at 10am. Natural gas has been under heavy selling pressure.